Closer to the Edge
by Just Anny
Summary: "With no one there to watch them fight, they would be forgotten. With no one there to watch them bleed, they would be forever wounded. With no one there to watch them die, there would be no glory... But he had never wanted glory." One-shot, based on the song "Closer to the Edge", by 30 Seconds to Mars.


**Closer to the Edge**

We all fall short of glory

Roars of thousands, no, _millions_ of monsters filled the ancient lands of Greece. The ground shaking heavily, but not only from the monsters that were marching toward the Seven and Mount Olympus. No, it was also because of the stirring of the Primordial deity of the earth. _Gaea_. The name left a sour taste in his mouth and he guessed it was the same with the six demigods next to him.

Percy stood tall, ignoring his inner fears; the curses of the Aria still torturing his mind. He had to be strong for her, so she knew that she could be strong too. Even if Annabeth was the strongest person he had ever met, he still thought he should give her courage. From experience he knew that he could only do that through actions, so he would.

His sword Riptide shimmered thanks to the burning sun and in the corners of his eyes, he could see that the weapons of his friends did the same. The monsters came closer. He could already see his old _friend _Polybotes amidst the army and their eyes locked with each other. The Bane of Poseidon roared and abandoned the army, his eyes focused at the son of Poseidon as if he had a personal vendetta against the demigod. _Which he had. _

The sound of a sword clashing against a trident was the beginning of a legendary battle. Even if he was still weak from his trip to Tartarus, he managed to block or dodge every single attack the Giant threw at him. "I'll make sure I'll kill you slowly, _demigod_", the Giant sneered at Percy.

Percy just grunted in response and dodged the net that was thrown toward him, but stumbled over a rock because of that. Polybotes noticed the demigod losing his balance and smirked. He slashed his trident at the son of Poseidon, only for Percy to drop his sword and throw himself to the ground . His hands met the earth first, before he rolled himself further away from the trident to break the fall.

The Giant had trouble to reach Percy in this position due to his size, which the demigod took advantage of. He uncapped Riptide, that had already returned to his pocked, and slashed at Polybotes' ankles. The Giant let out a scream and fell to his knees, unable to stand up. Before Gaea could heal his wounds with the earth, Percy let out a battle cry and cut off the Giant's head.

Golden Ichor seeped out of the Giant's neck, but he didn't dissolve into dust as a monster would. The earth seemed to swallow the Giant as if the dirt under their feet was actually quicksand. Before he knew it, Polybotes had disappeared from the surface of the earth. The only thing he knew was that the Giant wasn't dead.

Percy had little time to think about what had happened, since he was already attacked by various monsters. His mind and body went on auto-pilot as he slashed through the army. Grey dust surrounded his body, but he didn't care. As he attacked monsters one by one, he couldn't help but think how his could have turned out like this.

Who would have thought that the scrawny looking 12 year old had turned into a monster killing warrior, in not even 5 years? He could still remember the peaceful times when he was with his mother, eating her famous blue chocolate chip cookies. He longed for that peace again; living with Annabeth in a place like New Rome and starting a family of his own.

_He was slowly getting pushed back by the amount of monsters attacking him._

But after surviving Tartarus and fighting in these godforsaken wars, he knew that dream was already dead. His mind and her mind would never be peaceful, just like their lives would never be. They never got their true award for saving Olympus after the Second Titan War; peace. Percy wasn't as innocent and naive as he was at first. He knew the gods would never leave him, nor Annabeth alone to live their lives peacefully.

_He struggled to keep standing, receiving blow to blow. He looked around him to see only Annabeth still fighting. The rest had already fallen. A tear streamed over his cheek to his chin and fell on the ground._

The gods hadn't helped them in this war and now they were losing, but Percy couldn't resent them for that. His fatal flaw was keeping him from doing that. But he didn't regret the decisions he had made through the time. To not join Kronos, to not stay in Ogygia, to give Luke that dagger, to accept his fate, to let himself be used by the gods.

_Annabeth and he were now standing back to back, fighting off any monster who came close to them._

With no one there to watch them fight, they would be forgotten. With no one there to watch them bleed, they would be forever wounded. With no one there to watch them die, there would be no glory.

_But he had never wanted glory._

As if Kronos just stopped time, he could see a sword slowly approaching Annabeth's neck in the corner of his eye, while she was busy defending against an empousa. He didn't even see the attacker as he pushed Annabeth to the ground and took the blow. He gasped for air as the blade cut through his skin and collapsed.

_Pain._

He closed his eyes as bright flashes of light almost blinded them and he felt himself unable to open them again. The blood that left his body urged him to just fall asleep. To just leave the pain and meet the peace he longed for. "-ercy!", the voice made him unable to leave, "PERCY!"

He opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he could still make out who the person was who was hovering over him and tried to smile. His smile turned out to be a small movement of the corner of his lips. Percy raised his hand to feel her, but was too weak to reach her. She saw his movement, though, and grabbed his hand. "Annabeth", he whispered.

"Please don't leave me Percy... I can't live without you", she searched something in her pockets, but couldn't find what she was looking for and cursed. She looked around frantically. "APOLLO!"

_So those gods are here... Finally decided to show up._

The god of medicine was already busy with his own fight, that he couldn't help them. Annabeth screamed his name countless times, which made Percy wince, but with no success. He squeezed her hand so she would look at him. "I'm -"

Annabeth cut him off. "Don't you dare say you're sorry! Just don't..."

The corner of his lips curled up again. "I'll never forget you. One day we'll meet again."

Her tears fell on his face as she cried. The liquid didn't even heal the small gash on his cheek as it made its way to the ground. "No, no, no, no"

"Live your life, Wise Girl", he felt his consciousness slipping away, but he could just make out three words. "I love you", he said as he closed his eyes.

_The world screamed in pain as its hero died._

* * *

**[A/N]: *cries* So... sorry :'( Thought of this one-shot when I just couldn't write my other stories today, so I just wrote it... I hope you like it ;) Based on the song "Closer to the Edge" by 30 Seconds to Mars... **

**_IF_ you think I should make a story out of this instead of a one-shot, please tell me and maybe I'll do that... Until then, this story will be marked as complete, though...**

**'Till next time ^^**

**Xx Anny**


End file.
